Page:History of the Ojibway Nation.djvu/273

 

CHAPTER XXII.

 

CONTINUED PROGRESS OF THE OJIBWAYS ON THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI DURING THE END OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

 

The Pillagers and Sandy Lake bands concentre their forces, and make their fall and winter hunts in the vicinity of Crow Wing and Long Prairie—The Manner in which they employ themselves during different seasons of the year—Game abounds on the Dakota hunting grounds about Crow Wing—Fruits of one day's chase of the Ojibway hunter No-ka—Noka River is named after him—Pillagers and Sandy Lake bands rendezvous at Gull Lake—They proceed by slow marches towards Long Prairie—Meetings with the Dakotas—A temporary peace is affected, that either party may hunt in security—Manner of affecting a peace—Interchanges of good feeling and adopted relationship—The peace is often treacherously broken—Wa-son-aun-e-qua, or a tale of Indian revenge.

 

As beaver, and the larger animals, such as buffalo, elk, deer, and bear, decreased in the immediate vicinity of Leech and Sandy Lakes, the hardy bands of Ojibways who had taken possession of these beautiful sheets of water, were obliged to search further into the surrounding country for the game which formed the staple of life. It became customary for these two pioneer bands to meet by appointment, every fall of the year, at Gull Lake, or at the confluence of the Crow Wing with the Mississippi; and from thence to move in one collected camp into the more plentifully supplied hunting grounds of the Dakotas.

The camp, consisting of between fifty and a hundred light birch bark wigwams, moved by short stages from spot to spot, according to the pleasure of the chiefs, or as game was found to abound in the greatest plenty. This mode of hunting was kept up from the first fall of snow at the commencement of winter, to the month of February, when the bands again separated, and moved back slowly to their respective village sites, to busy themselves with